Top Projects event will showcase the area’s most prominent new developments

The Micron Business and Economics building at Boise State was honored as a Top Project last year. Photo by Leo Geis

The Idaho Business Review is again honoring the construction industry’s Top Projects in one of the Treasure Valley’s most prominent new developments.

The Oct. 16 event will be held at The Village at Meridian, just days ahead of its opening to the public. A preview of the site’s two-story movie theater, Bellagio-style fountain and manicured grounds will also be available during the eighth annual event.

Sponsored in part by The Village at Meridian, Russell Corporation and Idaho Power, Top Projects recognizes construction projects that either broke ground or were completed in 2012 and totaled more than $1 million.

Architects, engineers, general contractors and design firms are encouraged to submit their projects for recognition. Deadline for submissions is Aug. 31. Details are available [content-variable]here[/content-variable].

The categories for projects are government projects, private projects, and office and retail.

“An industry event, this gathering is an opportunity to preview the Village before it officially opens,” said Idaho Business Review Publisher Sean Evans.

Construction projects are changing the face of the Treasure Valley. In Boise, two cranes tower over the skyline for the first time in years, one at Eighth and Main and the other at the Simplot Jack’s Urban Meeting Place site. Each construction site employs hundreds of subcontractors. JUMP, a Simplot family development that will eventually include a new headquarters building for the J. R. Simplot Company, is expected to be completed in 2015. The Zions Bank building at Eighth and Main is targeted to be complete next year.

In Meridian, the view along Eagle Road has changed dramatically. Scentsy’s 63-acre campus is landscaped, with construction scheduled to finish on the five-story headquarters building this fall. Further down, at Fairview and Eagle roads, the multimillion-dollar Village at Meridian will open before the holidays.

Nampa’s Library Square broke ground this summer, and in Twin Falls, the Glanbia Corporate Office & Cheese Innovation Center opened in August. Smaller projects abound in Idaho. The installation of a geothermal system at a northern Idaho monastery and retreat center, the redevelopment of Boise’s venerable Owyhee Plaza hotel into apartments and improvements to the Ada County Jail’s kitchen are signals that development, large and small, is once again happening in Idaho.

Nominate your project for Top Projects

Top Projects recognizes construction projects that broke ground or were completed in 2012 and totaled more than $1 million.

Architects, engineers, general contractors and design firms are encouraged to submit their projects for recognition. The deadline for submissions is Aug. 31.